Paid and unpaid work

StarNow connects aspiring and professional talent with opportunities in all areas of the entertainment industry. As part of this, we understand that unpaid or low-paid collaborations can be great for building experience, networks, showreels, and portfolios.

Taking on unpaid work

It's really important that both parties benefit from any type of collaboration. With this in mind, please consider these questions before promoting or accepting a role:

Is the resulting product (e.g. a TV commercial) being used to generate income?

Is this role going to prevent anyone from performing in another, paid role in the future? (In other words, will their association with this project, even if it doesn't relate to advertising, put off another casting professional?)

If you answered ‘Yes’ or ‘Maybe’ to either of those questions, please think twice about whether it's a genuine opportunity for both parties.

Minimum wage requirements

We work closely with casting professionals to provide better opportunities on StarNow. We also help casting professionals meet their obligations when it comes to national minimum wage laws, by:

educating them about their obligations (this depends on which country they’re based in - see the list below)

reviewing all listings

actively encouraging paid opportunities for our members.

When creating a listing and choosing between “paid”, “unpaid”, and “expenses only”, casting professionals based in the UK have to tick a box to confirm they are not in breach of the Minimum Wage Act. Their listings also state: ‘The owner of this listing has agreed to abide by the UK National Minimum Wage Act. (Please read our terms and conditions for more details.)

Occasionally there are companies that offer unpaid work on productions when they should pay at least the national minimum wage. If you think a casting professional on StarNow may have breached national minimum wage legislation, please contact us.

Please note that any roles involving nudity must pay at least the national minimum wage.

To find out more about current minimum wage rates, please see the links for our main member countries below.

While some unpaid work may fall under “volunteering” or “collaboration”, a volunteer or collaborator has no contract. That means there is no obligation to work certain hours or perform particular duties.